Corruption Explored

My pack. This is where my werewolves currently stand. If you have any questions about anything, please do not hesitate to ask!

 

Iowa had to be at least ninety-six percent corn fields. The other four percent was farm houses. At least, that was how it seemed to me when I had grown up in unorganized Virginia. Compared to the closeness of buildings and absence of fields in the area I had grown up in, Iowa was downright boring. And flat! I was used to being able to pack a change of clothes, throw my bow and a few arrows over my shoulder and hike up into the mountains with William, in his wolf form. I have always been envious of William’s ability to be able to shift from wolf to human form in the blink of an eye, but I was never entirely sure if I wanted to make the Change into wolf and immortal, or remain a mortal human as I currently was.

I was born into a werewolf pack. In my pack, a normal pup is born on a non-full moon night, but I was born on a full moon night. My ancestors discovered that a pup born on a full moon night could choose to make the Change instead of being forced, as the normal Potential was. The Change always occurs on the full moon after a Potential’s eighteenth birthday. Potentials are trained from a young age in hand to hand combat as well as long range weaponry.

Me, I prefer a bow or pair of daggers. The Change is something revered among my pack. During the Change, the human brain is burned in the fires of the Change, and replaced with the brain of a wolf. With this new brain there comes immortality and a century of training in the old home of Germany’s dying Black Forest.  At least, that is the normal Change. When the brain is not fully consumed, or the Change only partakes halfway, the Potential is killed on the spot. A crazy wolf was a dangerous one. A crazy wolf with a human brain was even more dangerous.

When it came to my upbringing, a normal person would think it cruel. A newborn pup is given to the care of a mature pack member that holds no blood ties to the pup. The pack believes that a pup would achieve full potential in its learning and fighting skills by doing this.

I had been given to William Asim, the oldest member of the pack. He raised me to be a fighter and I turned out to show more potential in combat than the other Potential’s. William is far older than his youthful face would show; I overheard him mutter about the Trojan War once. I think he’s changed his name a few times, but I’ve never gotten up enough courage to ask him about his past. William is someone who could be your best friend, your favorite uncle or brother, or the strict geometry teacher you hated in high school.

William was the one driving the car I was sitting in while we passed through the cornfields on our way home. The cornfields moved like the waves of the ocean at sunrise or sunset and they made me wish I was back home where I could have just as easily hiked down to the beachfront as hiking up into the mountains.

The trip had taken three weeks so far, and we were taking another week on our way home. William had decided to take me up to Washington State to visit another wolf pack before I was forced to make the decision between Changing and staying mortal. I enjoyed the time I had spent with other Potentials from a very different area, a few who were like me and had been given the choice to make the Change. But now, William was taking me back home on a leisurely trip back down to Virginia. I wish we had just taken a plane, but no; William was afraid of flying.

The cornfields gave away as we crossed the murky Mississippi into an Illinois summer. I was bored, so bored that I swore boredom had become a wasting disease and was eating away at my mind.

William’s hand touched my leg and I cast a look at him. He glanced at me and the road for a moment before licking his lips. “Why not stop in Chicago to see what the Second City has to offer this century? We both could use a bit of excitement, and it has been a while since I have been in Chicago. I think Hitler was still in diapers the last time I was there…” William trailed off and gave me a long look.

I nodded and went back to staring out the window. Illinois was just as flat as Iowa. Just as boring.

 

We were passing into Cook County when I noticed that the other passengers in the cars around us had their windows down, and here William and I had them up. Feeling self conscious, I hit the button and my window slid away to reveal a burst of fresh city air.

“Merda!” William said in a strained tone and I looked at him with surprise. He looked like he had just caught the scent of something he wanted to kill and was going to shift into his wolf form right there. I grabbed the wheel and took the first exit we got to, hoping William would be able to do the footwork while I steered. We stopped at a gas station and William burst out of the car, eyes wild. I went over to him and grabbed his arms.

“William! William! William, what’s wrong?” I had to keep my head moving to stay in his line of sight; his head was almost bouncing off his shoulders.

William was calming down and he looked directly at me. “You have not been around as long as me, and you have yet to make the Change, so your senses are not as heightened as mine.” He bit his lip and nodded his head a few times. “I smell another pack. Close by. But this is not the normal smell of a pack. This reeks of corruption, black magick, and insanity.”

I reeled backwards. What William was describing was impossible. There were stories of an old werewolf, one older than William, who had sought out the dark arts as a way to make himself more powerful. He had been disappearing and showing up at random moments throughout the centuries, but he had not been seen during my lifetime. The rumors of what he had done were plenty, with absolutely no proof behind them. The one that had the older wolves concerned, yet hesitant to investigate, was that he had found a way to turn a normal human into a werewolf. That was something that had been tried, but the human, with its weak and primitive blood, never survived the Change. Not even half-bloods survived the Change.

I sat down on the hood of the car. This was a corrupt pack; one that could easily step outside, take a whiff, and come attacking William or me.

“What are we going to do? We stupidly didn’t bring along cell phones and since you were the one that raised me and with all the pack rules, I have no idea who or where we can call. I don’t have the nose to track them! We don’t even know how many of them there are! It could be a pack larger than the one back home!” My voice rose in octaves and was shocked to see William’s face all but burst into a grin.

“Sweetheart, my little pup, everything will be alright.” He pulled me into his arms and kissed the top of my head. “I believe that if we just do a little reconnaissance into the matter, we can report back to the Council when we get home and let them take care of the matters.” He kissed my head again, “Or, as I would prefer it, we can eliminate the threat before it gets too big for anyone to take care of,” he paused hesitantly, “Actually, that is what we are going to do.”

 

It took William two days to track the corrupted pack’s scent to where it was strongest: a small community theatre just inside Cook County boundaries. On the morning of the third day, William and I parked in the lot that was bordered by woods and sat in the car for a moment before William took a deep breath, coughed, and got out of the car. I sat for a second longer before I got out following William.

I would never forget the sight that greeted them when they got to the doors.

“OLIVER!” Two men that looked just old enough to drink legally burst out of the doors, one of them holding onto a silver furred wolf who was trying its best to get out of his arms. “Oliver, be reasonable!” The two men and wolf had gotten to the tree line, and the man carrying the wolf threw it into the woods while the other man pulled off his shirt and started to go into the forest. The first man grabbed him by his shoulders, “Thomas! There is no way in hell or heaven you are going to be able to get her to calm down!”

Thomas’s hands curled into fists and I watched as his long goatee turned from a pale brown to a dark black color. Obviously, these two men were too caught up in whatever had happened to the wolf to notice William or me.

“I don’t care about getting her calmed down. She is so upset that she could start going from human to wolf in front of humans and not even know it, exposing us.” He drew out the word ‘exposing’ to give it more emphasis than any other words he had said. “She could run all the way to the Field Museum and change back there. Maybe you’ve forgotten how much faster she is than all of us, Jason.”

Jason took a step back and turned to head towards the theatre. Thomas ran into the woods, changing into a wolf as he did so.

William grabbed Jason before he noticed him and slammed him up against the wall of the building. “Holy…” Jason started but then stopped. He looked back at the door into the theatre and then licked his lips.

I was grabbed from behind by a pair of large hands and four hands grabbed William to yank him off Jason. I started to fight back, but when William shook his head, I stopped. “Well, howdy, sweetheart,” a pleasant voice behind me whispered. William rolled his eyes and looked at me. He gave a half wink and I felt a smile crawl up my face. These fake werewolves had no idea what they were in for.

Three voices swore as William temporarily incapacitated them by jamming his hands into pressure points and forcing them to their knees. Jason joined them a split second later.  I looked down at four faces that were older than the age the Change transpired. I knelt down next to the one who had been holding me. His eyes were the color of black coffee and I have always hated coffee. “What’s your name, you corrupt—“

“Cassandra Elizabeth Asim.” William spoke my name in the voice he saved for the times he was close to thinking about killing me. I instantly jumped to my feet and turned to face William. “We do not play with those who we are about to kill.”

I looked down at the four wolves. Four pair of eyes glanced between me and William, some staying on me longer and with a bit of interest, while they stared at William with fear.

“Come on, what have we done?” Coffee Eyes grumbled under his breath.

William knelt down and grabbed Coffee Eye’s chin. “One, you attacked my charge. Two, you talked to her in a manner that should only be reserved for her future husband. Three, you simply exist.”

On the word “exist” an idea slapped me hard in the face. Yes, these wolves existed because they had been cursed with their gift by an unnamable and corrupt wolf. Yet, didn’t magick always leave a trace of its caster on the magicked object? If William and I could get these wolves back to Virginia, someone would be bound to figure out a way to track the magick to the corrupt wolf. That would be something amazing. That would be a reason to let these wolves live.

William was grasping Coffee eyes by the throat and was getting ready to snap it. Using the muscle memory techniques William had drilled into my brain, I kicked William in the chin hard enough to send his head back. He let go and gave me a look that normally would have me down on the ground and showing submission. Not this time.

“Trail.” It was the first word I could think of. Five pairs of confused eyes looked up at me. “They have been corrupted, but we can use that corruption to track down the corrupt wolf and kill him. If we kill these wolves, what do we have to work with? Besides, the fact that these guys exist means that one of the rumors is true, so what else could be true that we could find out?”

A slender finger tapped my shoulder in a delicate manner and as I turned to see who was behind me, a fist smacked me in the face and I blacked out.

 

I woke up with a sharp slap to my face. A young woman who looked to be around my age was squatting next to me. Behind the woman were Jason, Thomas, Coffee Eyes, and two other men I had seen just before I had blacked out, and one more man who reeked of power, even to my weak nose.

“Mornin’, sweetheart.” Coffee eyes muttered under his breath.

The woman turned to look at him, her eyes downcast, “Careful Brent, this one could easily kill you if she wanted.” She nodded her head over to William, who was draped with silver chains. “I honestly think that if he wanted to kill you already, he would have found a way just using his mouth.”

William started speaking in fast paced Latin, making me realize that William would kill them all in a matter of seconds if it were not for the chains. I had to think about that one for a long moment. Where had this wolf pack gotten chains and how the hell had they been able to use them without hurting themselves in the process? Maybe it was part of the curse.

“Silver doesn’t affect every supernatural creature. Only shape-shifters have to worry about silver. Me, the only thing I’m afraid of is a nice sharp piece of oak.” Out of the shadows of the building stepped someone who had to be at least twice as tall as me. The way his eyes showed deep intelligence, hunger, and loneliness told me that yet another rumor about the crazy wolf was true. Vampire’s eyes were the honest and real thing.

What the hell was wrong with Chicago and corruption?

The vampire took a step towards me. “Since sweet Ollie is nothing more than the Omega, allow me to make the introductions here.” He pointed at the one man who reeked of power. “This is Chaz, the Alpha. You already know his Beta, Brent. Jason and Thomas are Gamma’s along with Steve and Alex.” He bowed low, “and I am Bram.”

William coughed, “If your last name is Stoker, I may just die laughing.”

Chaz took a step forward. “You know our names, what are yours?”

Brent looked down at me, “Well, her name is Cassandra, but I have no idea what his is.” He looked over at William who wiggled and winced. For the first time, I realized that I wasn’t tied up with anything. Oliver had just knocked me out, but it seemed like Bram had pulled out the silver chains and did a maypole dance around William.

“His name is William. Now, since we have all proved to each other that we can beat the hell out of each other, why don’t we go inside or stay out here and have a nice long chat.” I tried to use the same voice that I had witnessed the Council use with rogue and crazy wolves. It must have worked because Oliver backed up to sit in the shadows and Chaz sat down where he was, with the rest of the pack moving to follow his lead.

Bram whispered something in William’s ear that made him nod, and a second later, William was free from the silver chains and they had disappeared. Damn vampire speed. I bet William could move just as fast, but probably didn’t want to reveal that to the corrupt supernatural beings surrounding us. Chaz looked over at William and moved just enough to put William in his sight. He gave a deep sigh and looked over at me. “Will you tell us why you are here?”

William answered for us, “We were traveling back home when we decided to take a short trip to Chicago to see some plays for a day or two. When we came across the scent of a pack, a pack that we had no idea existed and according to our stories, should not exist, we decided that it would be a good idea to come see for ourselves. My original plan was to wipe your foul hides from the planet, but it seems Cassie has got a better idea with the using your corrupt magick to track down the wolf who made your existence possible.”

The entire pack went still for a moment and then Chaz nodded. “We like this new idea of yours. We never meant to become wolves and our lives have become very complicated since then. If you can find a way to reverse the effects of this curse and restore us to pure humans, we will fully cooperate with you. If you find that there is no way to cure us, we ask that you leave us alone to live out our lives. If you decide that we must be killed, realize that we will not go down without a very, very, very long fight.”

Bram cleared his throat, “I don’t agree to that. I like my life. Though, if you can track down the guy that did this to me, I would like to take the first shot at him.”

William and I exchanged glances with William nodding.

“It is settled. You all are given the chance to come with us back to Virgina."